From People to Pansies
by CadenHyde
Summary: It has been revealed to the public that Seto Kaiba and Ryou Bakura are dating. But every rose has its thorns, something that Ryou will soon learn. (This is a Euroshipping fanfiction.)
1. Prologue: The Unexpected Shift

| Hello, folks! Welcome to my first story here on this website! I hope you all have as much fun reading this as I did writing this! Hope you enjoy! |

**Prologue: The Unexpected Shift**

"Have a great day!" Ryou said as another group of people left after dining at Damiano's. He always enjoyed his job as a waiter. It was a job where he could see customers and make them happy. Every shift at least once he'd think of how back in February Seto spoke of Ryou's good traits. Occasionally, a co-worker would see him blush and quickly poke a little fun at him. They often liked to do such. Ryou _was_ the youngest worker there.

Everything was going smoothly until about half-way through dinner shift, Ryou was called into his boss' office via earpiece. He obediently walked into his office, though he had no clue why he was there.

"I'm here, sir." He said, standing at the doorway.

"Take a seat." His boss instructed.

Ryou sat in a chair, waiting for what his boss will say.

"You have been working in this establishment for quite a while, haven't you?"

"Indeed, sir."

"I'm going to tell you this straight since there is no point in sugar-coating it. I'm firing you. Recently, it has been made public about your relationship with the big-shot Seto Kaiba. In other words, it's public that you are gay. Some customers may feel uncomfortable being served by someone who they know are gay and may end up leaving. I even saw some customers today that were a little uncomfortable being served by you. We cannot afford that. Therefore, go back to working your dinner shift because today is your last day."

Ryou put up a smile to mask his disappointment in the standards set. "I see. Well, thank you for allowing me to work at this restaurant for as long as I have." He stood up and bowed. "Have a great night, sir." Then he left the room when his boss gestured him to.

He continued his shift, still enjoying the people that he pleased with his service. At the end of his shift, he put on his coat and walked home. He sent Seto a text. "Hello, Seto. I don't expect you to reply to this so late at night, but I wanted to go ahead and inform you. I was fired from my job as a waiter. If you want to talk about it, let's talk in the morning. I don't feel like I can properly tell exactly what happened tonight. I hope you sleep well tonight." Ryou struggled to finish the message. He has been Seto's boyfriend for weeks now. He quickly typed it and sent it before he could tell himself otherwise. "I love you."

He proceeded to walk home, make a light dinner, get his pajamas on, and go to bed. Although, before he fully drifted to sleep, his silver tabby kitten, Momoka, made tiny drowsy squeaks that barely passed as meowing. Ryou looked at the floor where she sat, picked her up, and put her down beside his pillow. Then he went to sleep.

Meanwhile, Seto was working in his office at KaibaCorp when he received a text from Ryou. He was just finishing checking over a document sent via email too. When he finished, he read the text. He was in disbelief. He himself had seen Ryou's performance. In fact, it was by accident that he found out about Ryou's job in the first place when Mokuba had wanted to go to an Italian restaurant on their day out together. He knew Ryou performed excellently and was very well-suited for such a position. Why would he have been fired? But Ryou said if he wanted to speak, he'd have to do it in the morning. He put his feelings aside and carried out his work for another hour and a half before heading to the manor.


	2. Chapter One: The Call

**Chapter One: The Call**

The next morning, Ryou woke up to Momoka rubbing her face on his cheek. It was a very pleasant way to wake up. He got out of bed, put Momoka on the floor and went to feed her. After that, he went back to his room, closed the door, took off his shirt, put on the Millennium Ring, and got dressed. He made himself breakfast, brushed his hair, and had just turned on his phone when it started ringing. It was, of course, Seto. He answered it. "Good morning."

"Good morning, Ryou. I saw your text last night. How did you get fired?"

"I got fired because he said that since I'm gay, customers may feel uncomfortable with being served by me based on my sexuality."

"As if customers are going to care about that! Sounds to me that your boss is homophobic and makes up excuses for firing you. Ryou, I've said it once and I'll say it again. You are suited for your job. You're sociable, patient, and friendly. I can tell you for a fact that you were an asset in that restaurant. Therefore, something as minor as your sexuality shouldn't be the reason for you not being able to work there."

Ryou almost felt afraid to stay on the phone. Seto was obviously very passionate about this. But his bold tone was almost intimidating for Ryou. "It's okay, Seto. I can find a job somewhere else."

"No, it isn't okay! I'm going to talk to that boss of yours and tell him that his action was unjustified."

"P-P-Please don't do that. I'm not worth that much trouble."

"But you are! And it won't be any trouble at all. I'll be done before you know it."

"Seto, if you go through with this, and I end up being back as a waiter, I'll be on awful terms with my boss. I'm lucky he has been so lenient. Plus he'll most likely going to want me to work even more and I can't afford to take on Sundays as well, I can't risk time after school, and I most definitely cannot be missing school days to work there."

"I see." Seto said, obviously trying to hold back from yelling again. "Then I'll still go to tell him that it better not happen again since it's still a disgrace."

Ryou sighed, knowing that for this, he had no counterargument. "I'll talk to you later, then. You're awesome." That was the closest he could get himself to verbally saying "I love you".

"Hm, love you too." Seto ended the call.


	3. Chapter Two: Errand

**Chapter Two: Errand**

Ryou looked online for job openings near him. He couldn't help but feel disappointed. His boss had complimented his work ethic. But all that was needed was for the public to know that he was dating Seto Kaiba in order for him to go back on all that.

"Don't be so down. You've gone through _much_ worse." Bakura said bitterly.

"I know, but I loved working at Damiano's. And most of these jobs I'm finding aren't any that I could do as a student. Then all the others are too far to get proper sleep and be on time by going on foot. I'll call Yu- right...he doesn't even know that I had a job in the first place." As he spoke, he meandered around the kitchen.

He looked in his small back lawn at the three petite graves he had made for his parents and his sister since they couldn't have a proper funeral. The flowers at each one of them had died. Ryou took his wallet, put on his outside shoes and his coat, and went to the flower store.

The store wasn't too far away. When he was entering the flower store, he saw a sign on the side of the store saying "Now Hiring". He proceeded to walk in. He felt uncomfortable wearing his black trench coat since last month it had mysteriously appeared in his closet. He had an underlying suspicion that the spirit had something to do with it, but he'd never say anything.

"Welcome to Flowerworks." The lady at the counter greeted.

Ryou half-bowed in thanks. He looked at the collection of flowers and smiled. He liked looking at flowers. The freshness and color of them made him happy. He picked up an orange and red rose-filled vase and took it to the counter. "Excuse me, do you happen to have pink irises and pastel blue lilies? I visit here sometimes and it's always available even though it isn't out on display." Though the question was long, he was timid and polite as he spoke.

The woman nodded with a smile. "We do. I've only worked here a week and saw them in a room yesterday. I wondered why it wasn't on display and they said that they knew that you'd be here to buy some soon. I'll be right back." She turned and left to go to a room on the side of the hall behind her.

'She's certainly talkative. I can see why she was placed to work at the counter.' Ryou thought as he waited.

Soon the woman returned with two vases filled with lilies and irises. She gave him the price for all the flowers.

"Actually, I was wondering if I could also get a job application for here." Ryou added as he handed her the yen.

"Sure." She put the yen away and walked to a different room for a few seconds before coming back with a paper. "Here you go."

"Thank you." Ryou said as he accepted the paper. "Have a great day, ma'am."

"You too."

Ryou walked back home, set the paper on the kitchen table, and head to his backyard. Only a short moment after setting the vases on the ground, he heard a meow from behind him. He turned around and saw Momoka just outside the door. He quickly went to her and put her in a chest pocket of his coat, in which she happily stayed.

He took the dead flowers out of their vases and set them in front of the graves as he replaced the old vases. He set the roses beside Amane's grave, the irises by his mother's grave, and the lilies beside the grave of his father. He took the old vases back inside and carefully placed them in the trash, even though they were lovely little vases.

He put Momoka back out of his pocket, put his coat away, grabbed a pen, and started filling out the job application.


	4. Chapter Three: Confrontation

**Chapter Three: Confrontation**

In the Kaiba manor, after he hung up the phone, he got dressed in a black dress shirt, light blue chinos, a dark grey necktie, fixed his hair, got a light breakfast, and head out, getting on his black shoes.

"Where are you going so early, nii-sama?" Mokuba inquired.

"Just a quick visit somewhere. Don't worry, I won't be gone too long." Before Mokuba could get another word out, Seto turned and walked through the front door. He took one of his sports cars from the driveway and drove to Damiano's.

He walked in and the maître d' greeted. "Welcome to Damiano's. How may I help you, sir?"

"Hello, I was wanting to talk to the manager of this establishment."

The lady nodded. "Of course. Right this way." She said with a gesture emphasizing her words. She walked through the organized busyness and Seto had to make something of an effort to avoid accidentally hitting waitpersons or their trays due to him being taller than average. Away from all of it, she further led him to a small hallway. "Sir, there is someone who would like to talk to you." She notified, standing at the door frame before Seto could arrive.

"Let them in, then."

She nodded. "Here he is."

Upon Seto's arrival, the man was shocked, smoothly covered with a smug glare. The man was Seto's height and quite slender. He wore a red dress shirt, a white bow tie, black vest, had short black hair, and had amber-brown eyes. "Well, if it isn't the notorious Seto Kaiba. What have I done to deserve being blessed by your presence?" He asked sarcastically.

"You know very well why I am here, Suzuki." Seto said. He had looked up quite a bit of information on Ryou's former boss in the past to see if the place that Ryou worked for had good management.

"You're here just because I fired your little boyfriend? Listen, I don't regret any actions I've taken and I won't start now."

"If you had fired him on the premise of an abundance of failure to meet standards as a waiter, I would be able to see why you fired him. But you fired him on the sole reason because he wasn't straight. Ryou works hard for his job and would work longer hours if you told him to because that's the kind of person he is. You looked past his skills and position as an asset to the workplace and only saw him based on a single label that was placed upon him in a moment's notice. Your homophobia blinded you of all other aspects to him! You are a disgrace not only to the workforce as someone who should take all things into consideration when making choices, but also a disgrace to society as identities and sexualities such as homosexuality and bisexuality are becoming more common in this ever-growing civilization! I better not hear another instance of this injustice happening again otherwise I will make sure it will never happen again moving forward. Do I make myself clear?"

Mr. Suzuki was speechless.

"That is what I thought. Have a good day." Seto said condescendingly before leaving.


End file.
